Many electrical devices are able to operate in different modes based on configuration information provided during a power-on sequence. For example, during the power-on sequence, an electrical device may gather the configuration information from pin states (e.g., from “System Booting Pins”). The configuration information is subsequently used to select a device's mode of operation. As devices become more complicated, the number of different modes which can be supported increases. For example, some System on Chip (SoC) devices may have several hundred pins and dozens of modes.
Using dedicated pins to provide configuration information is sometimes undesirable since the number of pins in a chip design is limited and changes to pins assignments (or new pin assignments) may be needed later. Further, using re-programmable pins to provide configuration information carries a greater risk of pin states being accidently changed due to the additional circuitry (additional paths that potentially affect a pin's state) coupled to re-programmable pins.